Air-supported structures are now commonly used to cover and protect complexes, such as tennis courts, swimming pools or other sporting events and even meetings, conferences or other groupings of people. These complexes are found especially in areas of the country where participation in certain sports is limited or prohibited in the winter months. Air-supported structures have certain advantages over rigid buildings among which are a) they are less costly than comparable rigid buildings and, b) since they no longer require an extensive system of centrally located rigid support columns and lighting fixtures, they provide to people generally the same open feeling that rigid buildings offer.
While air-supported structures are relatively inexpensive to build, they can be fairly expensive to maintain since it is necessary not only to introduce continuously appropriately conditioned (i.e. heated or cooled) air into the structure to compensate for air losses, that inherently occur from minor leaks and door openings but also to compensate for changing environmental conditions. The integrity of the structure is also always at risk of collapsing from wind or snow resulting in costly repair expense and down time.
The operating costs resulting from energy use increase to condition the air according to the season and to meet integrity protection requirements during inclement weather. For example, when the weather conditions include high or gusty winds and/or frozen precipitation, the pressure inside the structure has been normally increased to the maximum limit tolerated by the people inside and permitted by the strength of the air-structure in order to maximize its rigidity for protection against collapse under the operating assumption that maximum rigidity meets the integrity requirements for any intermediate threatening condition. The precautionary measure of increasing pressure is normally taken by on-site maintenance personnel that visually check the weather conditions or weather forecast. Such precautionary measure is even taken in anticipation of inclement weather. Obviously, the integrity of the air structure depends upon the presence and decisive action of such personnel at these critical times.
Increasing the pressure in the structure to a maximum allowable limit greatly adds to the structure's energy costs because it requires the introduction of more outside air that must be conditioned. To err on the side of safety, typically, the operating personnel maintain the pressure at the allowable maximum during or in anticipation of the inclement weather, regardless of the actual weather conditions.